High winds Wednesday morning ripped down trees and knocked out electrical power to between 3,000 and 3,500 customers on the North Olympic Peninsula
About 2,500 to 3,000 were in Clallam County and about 500 were in East Jefferson County.
Clallam County Public Utility District crews had restored power to all but 130 by Wednesday night.
In East Jefferson County, Puget Sound Energy had restored power to all but 44 customers by 6 p.m.
The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of more than 20 mph across the region, with gusts of 49 mph in Forks, 33 mph in Port Angeles, 35 mph in Sequim and 59 mph in Port Townsend.
Other peak gusts were 56 mph in LaPush, 36 mph in Diamond Point, 40 mph in Quilcene and 52 mph in Brinnon.
Farther afield, the Weather Service said, wind gusted to 98 mph at Hurricane Ridge, to 79 mph at Tatoosh Island and to 72 mph at Destruction Island.
“We had a powerful low-pressure system moving off the coast north towards Vancouver Island,” said Dennis D’Amico, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
Strong pressure gradients associated with the cold front powered the southeast winds, D’Amico said.
Fallen trees and limbs in power lines caused outages, which were reported from the east side of the Peninsula to the Pacific Coast.
Havoc west of Port Angeles
The morning outages wreaked havoc on the westbound commute on U.S. Highway 101 into Port Angeles after several traffic lights were disabled.
Traffic was backed up to the Morse Creek S-curve.
The State Patrol directed traffic until the lights were restored at about 9:15 a.m.
PUD spokesman Michael Howe said the wind damage began at about 7:30 a.m.
As of 6 p.m., the remaining areas without power were along Patterson Road southeast of Port Angeles, the Joyce area, Lake Sutherland and Barnes Point.
“We’re making progress,” Howe said.
At 10 a.m., about 750 customers around Joyce and another 750 east of Port Angeles were without power.
“The others are spread out west and in Sequim,” Howe said.
An outage at the PUD office on U.S. Highway 101 east of Port Angeles resulted in computer and telephone delays, Howe said.
City of Port Angeles spokeswoman Teresa Pierce said no power outages occurred in the city.
A downed tree blocked both directions of U.S. Highway 101 at Barnes Creek at Lake Crescent at 2:35 p.m. The state Department of Transportation cleared the tree and reopened the road at 3:10 p.m.
East Jefferson County
Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman Abigail Elliott said 500 Jefferson County customers lost electrical power shortly after noon.
“Crews are responding to outages as they happen,” Elliott said.
PSE officials had restored power to all but 44 of those customers by 6 p.m.
High winds and heavy seas canceled the Port Townsend-Coupeville ferry service aboard the MV Chetzemoka for much of the morning and part of the afternoon.
Hood Canal Bridge remained open, with waves splashing over its south side.
Showers today
D’Amico said the Peninsula lowlands can expect showers today, with a stronger system moving in Friday night.
Friday’s storm will pack sustained winds of 15 to 20 mph with gusts in the 30 to 45 mph range, D’Amico predicted.
Lowland snow is not in the forecast, but the freezing level will remain below 3,000 feet through the weekend, D’Amico said.
Olympic National Park reported 117 inches of snow at Hurricane Ridge on Wednesday.
Hurricane Ridge Road was closed Wednesday due to high winds and drifting snow.
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Reporters Jeff Chew and Tom Callis contributed to this report.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
